I’m very excited to be posting the second of many interviews I’ve done lately. This week, Pokemon Gijinka Nation interviewed Yuffie Suzume who may be one of the most dedicated costumers I’ve seen to the gijinka art style. To this date, Yuffie has completed five unique gijinka costumes, all of which has received accolades from her peers on Cosplay.com.

For this interview, we explored a little bit more about her and the inspiration for completing the costumes.

Hit the bump for the interview and for a gallery of photos.

(C) BlankLogo Photography & (C) Yuffie_Suzume

Where does cosplay/costuming fit in your life?
Well, first of all I’ve always been into cosplay since I was a little girl. And not just cosplay, but fashion and costuming in general. I’ve always had an interest in making clothes and costumes for myself and others.

Do you have any professional costume training?
Nope, nothing at all, never had. I’ve pretty much learned everything on my own. Ever since I started cosplaying, I’ve been pretty much winging it and learning things through my own mistakes. Every now and then I would use a tutorial but only if I really can’t figure out how to do something. Other than that, I’ve always tried something first before asking for help.

Do you have any art credentials? Are you still in school? What do you study?
Still in school. I’m studying to become a Fashion Design major. Right now I’m in a community college but I plan on transferring to a good school for fashion design, possibly CSULA.

Any chance you’ll make a career out of art?
I hope so! I really hope to start my own business or maybe a few of my friends who do this just as much as I do can start a business together :] I really do hope to cosplay as long as I can, and help other cosplayers as well.

(C) BlankLogo Photography & (C) Yuffie_Suzume

What got you started in costuming?
Playing Final Fantasy X. That was one of the first RPG games that I started playing and I was still very young but I fell in love with the art and design of everyones outfits in the game which definitely inspired me to make it. I actually still havent made a costume from FFX but one of my first cosplays was FFX-2 Gunner Yuna which is also one of the first games I played.

What was your very first cosplay? – How was that experience? – What about that experience made you want to keep costuming?
My first cosplay was FFX-2 Gunner Yuna, it was actually a pretty bad job but I guess that’s for all first timers. I did it with some friends for halloween but my first actual cosplay at a con was Bleach Rukia. Just seeing everyone in amazing cosplays made me want to be just as great as them and to continue cosplaying because it’s just way too much fun to stop and you meet a lot of awesome people.

What has been your favorite cosplay and why?

Velvet (left) & Rydia (right) (C)bigwhitebazooka & (C)BlankLogo

It’s a tie between my Odin Sphere Velvet and my FFIV Rydia. I did Rydia before my Velvet but they’re both very detailed and just so much fun to wear. I really like my Rydia because of the details and the amount of work I put into it, and just how lovely her character is in general. On the other hand, my Velvet cosplay only makes me love it just as much because of the weapons called Psyphers that my dad and I made. We even added LED lights inside the crystals to make it light up which in the end turned out amazing. It couldve been better and definitely lighter in weight but I love how they turned out. As of now though, those two cosplays are retired.

The one in the Pink (C) BlankLogo

What was your first gijinka?
Pokemon Espeon. The cosplay group that I am in, that my boyfriend formed, planned on an Eevee Evolutions group. So since my boyfriend was Umbreon, I decided to be Espeon to match up :]

Favorite thing about gijinka?
The fact that you can be completely original with the idea. There’s really no right or wrong when doing gijinkas because you can make it however you want to and the outcome of a lot that I’ve seen are just simply amazing.

Do you have a dream gijinka?
Right now I don’t, I actually don’t really even have dream cosplays. I have a list of cosplay that I WANT to do, but no dream cosplay. I feel that I should at least try at the cosplays I want to do instead of sitting around saying that’s my dream cosplay when I can probably eventually come around to making it.

-FLYGON GIJINKA-

How did you got the idea? Did you draw/come up with this on your own?
I actually used a fanart as reference, but in the end I pretty much made it my own thing and it barely even looks like the fanart anymore. So I guess I kind of just winged it in the end and altered a lot of things to my liking to fit my personality more.

The Flygon Gijinka (C) BlankLogo

Why this particular one stuck with you?
I always liked this specific pokemon. I always thought it was really cool looking and it’s not one of the mainstream ones which i like to do. I don’t like doing anything overdone nowadays.

Could you go into a little bit of detail about how you made costume?
It was actually a dress I already had, but it was a long prom dress type that I just altered quite a lot actually and made it much shorter than it originally was. Everything was of a silky, flowy material and I used a stretchy fabric for the wings. The base of the wings are wire so that I can bend them in any way and part of it has cardboard to hold it up since the wire I used is very light, thin, and not very strong therefore it needed support from the cardboard.

(C) BlizzardTerrak

Was this a pattern you came up with?
Pretty much, like I said I originally wanted to follow a fanart of it but in the making I eventually changed up the whole thing to my liking to fit me better.

Can you give a ballpark of how much cost?
Honestly, I usually don’t keep up with the costs of my cosplay. If I have the money, I go straight for it without thinking. So I really don’t know how much it cost me, and since it had a lot of alterations of things I already had from leftover scraps and such from other cosplays, it shouldnt have been that much really. Maybe around $50 which is pretty cheap for cosplay.

What were some of the reactions to costume? – Do you feel most people recognized you?
YES! I was surprised actually that a lot of people came up to me and said how original I was and how most people don’t do this Pokemon. I was very VERY glad to hear it because a lot of those people were a fan of the character as well and definitely loved the design as much as I did.

What didn’t you like about it?
The contacts. It was my first pair of red ones, not my first pair of contacts, just red ones and I didn’t realize how big the size was because i looked at the wrong diameter for it and it turned out to be 18mm in diameter instead of the normal 14mm. This definitely was an eye sore. I love the contacts, I really do because it stands out really well in person and in photos. Just the fact that they were incredibly uncomfortable and I couldn’t last that long in them was really annoying. I plan on getting smaller contacts for this costume so that I can re-wear it again sometime.

What would you do differently next time?
Definitely just the contacts, and maybe fix the wig a little and maybe also the red clip-ons that I made for the pig-tails since they were kind of out of place when I attached them.

What did you learn overall about the costuming experience?
About cosplay in general, I learned a lot. Over the years I’ve learned SO much on how to make certain things. Just recently I learned how to make pants which was very exciting. They’re quite annoying to make but I’m definitely learning something new each time I work on a new cosplay. Every time I work on a new cosplay, I’m always learning and becoming better at things.

Raichu gijinka (C) Yuffie_Suzume

Are you excited about Pokemon Black and White? Anything in particular about it?
Yes! Though, the pokemon so far aren’t interesting or I haven’t really found one that I like. But, just the new places to travel and new things in the game is really exciting :]

Have you done a Nuzlocke run yet?
Nope!

What do you think about the future of the Pokemon series?
I think it’ll last forever honestly. I don’t want it to ever end and it is becoming more and more popular each time something new that’s pokemon-related comes out.

Do you think you’ll always be a pokemon fan?
:] Always ❤

Flygon (C) BlankLogo

Many thanks to Yuffie_Suzume for conducting this interview. If you want to check out her very sizable list of cosplay, head over to her Cosplay.com page or check out her DeviantArt page.